Cassia (3.5e Deity)
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Cassia
| Intermediate Deity | |
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| Symbol: | Omega (Ω) over a symbol of three moons (waxing, full, and waning.) |
| Home Plane: | Cassian plane |
| Alignment: | Chaotic Evil |
| Portfolio: | Evil, sloth, selfishness, lust, irresponsibility. |
| Clergy Alignments: | Any evil, chaotic |
| Domains: | Evil, Chaos |
| Favored Weapon: | Whip |
Cassia is an intermediate, rank 13 deity who appears as an incredibly beautiful elven female with perpetual youth, with the same weight and height (5'5 tall and weighing 90 pounds.) She usually wears nothing, but might occasionally cover herself with light clothing. Her every step is the epitome of grace, her voice sounds like the finest music, and her charismatic gaze pierces to the soul of all who view her. She is sometimes hired by even more powerful deities to weaken a certain country with her degenerative powers. Her title is the goddess of "liberation", and her use of the word couldn't be more misplaced.
Her personality is selfishness and hedonism personified, and she has no inhibitions or limits. Having all the power she needs to free herself from the consequences of almost any action she could possibly take, she feels like she can do whatever she wants, and despite being divine, she doesn't know of or care for any codes of morality save for what she sets for herself and her followers. Cassia acts on whims, lies to others, and breaks promises to others whenever she wants but does not expect her followers to be able to do the same to her. This hypocrisy goes unnoticed by her unreasonable followers.
While some lands believe her to be a goddess of love, this assertion would be incorrect, as love is kind, generous, and unselfish. At best, she is the patroness of mutual lust and indulgence. Cassia has never loved anyone outside of herself; she may have lusted after countless males (despite her hatred of males in general; she counters this by killing them after having... her way with them), but she never actually cared about their well-being or held any true affection for them. Hatred and anger are common emotions for Cassia, as is the most extreme hubristic pride. Cassia enjoys taking revenge, making her enemies suffer, and watching people, nations, and whole civilizations crumble beneath her influence.
Cassia is a popular goddess for amazons, female elves and half-elves, selfish people, and sorceresses. Her power comes from her followers, who unknowingly give her the ability to oppress them. Her ultimate goal is for the whole of all realities to bow down to her as their sole object of worship.
Dogma
Cassia is a goddess of selfish, irresponsible, licentious behavior. She takes advantage of perceived and actual wrongs committed against groups of people, and encourages them to rebel against the system they are in. Once that is done, whether it is a success, failure, or somewhere in between, she encourages her followers to "liberate" themselves by shedding all social commitments, responsibilities, and all duties. Morality, ethics, and respect for real liberty and justice all fade under her influence, as the people degenerate into an abyss of sinful behavior and pleasure-seeking. This is so because Cassia teaches that there is no right save for what makes one feel good and be free and no wrong except for what prevents one from being free and feeling good. Of course, Cassia makes exceptions to these points whenever she feels like it.
Under her power, people willingly stop having children (they have no desire to take responsibility for the future, although children may still be born due to the course of their lustful actions, the people under her rule will never intend to procreate and will likely abandon their newborns), do the very minimum amount of work needed to survive, disband their defenses, misspend their money, commit perverse acts in massive displays of lust, and when asked to be held accountable for their actions, they call those who ask "oppressive."
When Cassia first enters a region, she appears in the woods and other isolated areas, and tells poor women that a new divinity has arrived in the land and will protect them. She also appears to women who are overstressed or feel repressed or oppressed in some way. Putting on false pretense of freedom, Cassia wins her first recruits, then leaves before anyone with knowledge of her can retaliate. She never tells anyone her name until her religion has taken root in the land and she is well-established. Once this happens, she returns to the land to feed off of the emotions of her followers.
Many religions have a central ritual, and the followers of Cassia are no exception. For some religions, it is the mass or a service that is central. For others, it is meditation. For Cassia's worshipers, a ritual only open to females (like her) known as "the release" is central. Contrary to popular belief, no lustful activity takes place in this ceremony; it is simply a great cacophony of screaming and cathartic venting, followed by a period of rest. This ceremony gives Cassia a power boost every time it is performed (thrice a week), as her powers feed of off the emotions of her followers. As a result, moderation and self-control are discouraged; her clergy says that these things are the sign of an "oppressed mind". A good follower of Cassia has raging emotions which she makes no effort to control or hide, always acts on these emotions and never lets reason or logic get in the way of how she feels. Screams of women "letting it all out" are common in Cassia's temples.
The second most important ritual is prayer to the moon, as it is part of Cassia's symbol. Prayer in the Cassian religion is more akin to begging, screaming, and crying than it is to prayer as other religions would hold prayer to be. The main theme of the prayer is begging to get what you want from Cassia by offering her your total submission, the dogma says that only Cassia can give one emotional and spiritual release. She doesn't just want one's soul and respect; she wants one's power, dignity, life, and free will. Cassia can indeed create the illusion of freedom and a feeling of release, but a rational mind will detect that the truth is she can only grant oppression and degeneration.
Among the more specific parts of her dogma are prohibitions on speech, reading and writing, as she feels that books create the potential for "bibliographic inequalities" between people (in truth, she doesn't want her followers to think for themselves, and destroying literacy is a good way to do this.) A major rule that is followed in the early days of a land's corruption is that of "Cassian correctness", which is the social prohibition of saying anything that would contradict Cassia's followers or their ideas. It also means that certain words cannot be said because they are immoral. "Lustful" is removed from the language because it implies a moral judgment of an action and is replaced with "liberated". "Promiscuity" is replaced with "freedom", "philosophy" is replaced with "male trickery", "book" turns into "dangerous", "reason" and "pain" become the same word, "pride" and "happiness" become the same word, "pleasure" and "good" become the same word as well, and the words "morality" and "god" (the noun for a male deity) are replaced with "imprisonment" and "oppressor."
As the corruption becomes more advanced her followers are also made to adopt a language which gets smaller every year as words like "bad" or "excess" are removed so no one can say Cassia is bad or that her followers are excessive. When trying to convert followers away from Cassia (which is very hard to do), mentions of duty or moral obligation will produce an instinctive reaction against the religion. Talking about moral duty in an otherwise convincing manner to one of her priestesses may make her run away or scream, as the mere thought of having to do something for anyone else other than Cassia or herself "makes me feel like I can't breathe" or "you want to use me!"
The trick to Cassia's religion is that it appeals to the emotions and operates in the name of freedom; in fact, it is really nothing more than back-door oppression and brainwashing. In the final stages of a land's corruption, the people will become like mindless drones; totally equal, totally unfree. Having lost all ability to maintain even the vestigial traces of civilization, most language, or social order, Cassia's followers take to living in the wilderness. By this time, there will be few of them left, and Cassia will have to go elsewhere. If any of the country survives, it will live in the ruins once Cassia's influence has left the land, leaving behind the shattered husk of a once-great nation.
Clergy and Temples
Cassia's clergy discriminate against those who have historically been non-disadvantaged. This means that her clergy are made up of the poor, minority races, and women; men are never allowed, and majority races and the well-to-do are restricted unless they take a special oath to follow Cassia. Instead of actually improving their condition, Cassia tricks them into making it worse for them and, over time, her clergy and temples can weaken a land to the point that takeover by a more powerful foe is possible. Her temples aren't built; they are simply the temples of other deities that are taken over by her faithful. Her religion has but one definite holiday, and that is her birthday. On this day, Cassia receives a great boost of power from all of her followers.
Cassia's clergy tend not be to very intelligent; they are fooled by simple tricks that Cassia shows them such as walking on water, or making plants grow wherever her bare feet touch the ground. They interpret these signs as if she was the one god that was supposed to be worshiped. The one group of intelligent clergy Cassia does have are those who are skilled in biology and magic; they know how to take advantage of the way the brain works, and can cast spells on their followers which stimulate the production of certain hormones in such a way as to create the illusion of happiness, and to activate the sensations one would feel if one had been truly liberated. Wise people can sometimes get out of this, but emotional, hormonal, or less wise people are bound to fall to the spell.
There is little organization among the clergy of her lands. In fact, lands that follow Cassia gradually lose their civilization and will eventually degenerate back into wilderness.
History
Cassia is a rare individual; she has undergone apotheosis and rose from mortal to divine. Born to a callous noble elven family, she was taught to have a disregard for people poorer than her and was raised to believe that the great masses of the peoples of the world only existed for the benefit of a few exceptional individuals. She was raised with servants to do everything for her and she was never taught the value of responsibility or integrity. As a regular elf, she had a weak but beautiful and graceful body, and a keen mind with keen senses. Although she was very intelligent, she had little wisdom; that is, she knew about things one can touch and see, but little about what cannot be seen or felt. Her rich family easily paid for her studies of magic, which came naturally to her, and soon, she was a skilled sorceress.
Highly emotional and sensual even for a female elf, Cassia was inclined to use magic that was related to feelings and abilities that were linked to charisma. In time, she learned how to use her magic to make others do what she wanted by means of charm spells at first and enthrall and enslavement spells later. Her selfish behavior grew with her powers until it eventually became sociopathic. The saddest part was that none of the other mages who had the power to stop her thought that there was anything wrong with her; on the contrary, in their eyes she was a highly independent, empowered individual who knew what she wanted and had the drive and intelligence to act on it without society stopping her from "spreading her wings and taking flight". Far from being looked down on or considered evil, she was envied by many mages, and this envy for her only fed Cassia's ego. Cassia eventually started referring to herself as a divinity, and was able to trick a number foolish people into believing that she was. These were her earliest followers. When Cassia began to take people away from a minor god's temple, the deity intervened. He appeared before Cassia, subdued her in combat, frightened away many of her worshipers, and only spared her when she begged for mercy with her sweet voice. Because she had been beaten by a male deity, she soon developed a hatred of males overall, and from that point, her idea of appealing to oppressed women as if she was some amazonian deity began. The problem was that she wasn't actually a divinity yet. She would have to gain more power if she was to do this.
Because of her talent, Cassia eventually became an archmage and like many archmages, decided to produce a masterwork: her own divinity. She spent many years inventing a cocoon for her to reside in. Upon casting many necessary protective spells (enhanced by permanency) and having mastered the ability to be conscious in her dreams while her body slept, she was ready to enter the chrysalis and transform. Over a period of over a thousand years, she slowly gathered energy in a variety of ways. Some energy was naturally drawn in from her surroundings, some was given to her by her earliest followers when she appeared to them in their dreams and told them to do so (they were lured by her promises), and the rest came from adventurers who foolishly tried to destroy the cocoon without proper precautions (just touching it drains one of power.) When she had gathered enough energy, the apotheosis process was still slow, taking 197 years; after that, the process of breaking her chrysalis took seven months. Finally, after over a millennium, Cassia had finally become a goddess, but only one of the lowest rank.
In the years to come, Cassia began seeping power away from a wide variety of followers in many different nations. Over time, her divine rank grew with her followers, and continues to grow to this day. Cassia has since created her own personal plane, and is the sole object of worship in some nations, plus a significant side deity in many others. She has her sights set on Praemium Terra, a land of exploitation with much bitterness and desire for liberation for her to falsely exploit. If she succeeded in converting Praemium Terra, it would be by far her greatest victory to date and would increase her power dramatically, but the archmages of that land aren't about to let her walk in on their territory.
Powers
While Cassia is a goddess, she is not invincible. She is divine, but still has a soft body of flesh and she is thus vulnerable. To compensate for this, Cassia has great powers stemming from her divine charisma and passions. Contrary to common belief, it is the magic behind her beauty which is dangerous, not her beauty itself. In addition to the powers below, it must be noted that she is a very dangerous mage. In combat, Cassia very rarely makes use of physical attacks, as she isn't very strong and she can far more easily utilize her inherent divine powers than she can throw a fist. Usually, all it takes for her to kill an opponent is for her to be near them when she activates her powers.
Power Source: Cassia's powers are fed by the emotions of her followers in a specific land. The more time she spends away from a population of significant followers, the weaker she becomes in both body and power. The specifics of her hit points, speed, Armor Class, Strength, and most other features (except for Intelligence, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma) are determined by how many followers she has in a 1000 kilometer radius and how much they believe in her. Note that she receives power from all of her followers when she is in her home plane, so she is strongest when she is there. Her Armor Class depends on a force shield which keeps her soft skin from being hurt; the more power she has, the stronger the shield is, and vice versa. Cassia has to visit lands that she is worshiped in to keep her power levels up. If all of her followers were to abandon her and she couldn't replace them, she would lose power quickly and need to operate on saved-up reserves. If all of her divine power were to be used up, she would become a mortal again, but would still have her sorcerous abilities and would still have the potential to absorb energy from belief if she could convince people to worship her.
Minor Energy Drain: If Cassia is desperate for power, or just wants to take some more, Cassia can drain it by touching a living creature or an energy-filled construct with a draining touch as a standard action. As a side effect, Cassia's draining touch ability acts as if a sleep spell was casted on her victim as well as the primary effect.
Divine Aura: The mere presence of a deity of rank 1 or higher can deeply affect mortals and beings of lower divine rank. All divine aura effects are mind-affecting, extraordinary abilities. Mortals and other deities of lower rank can resist the aura’s effects with successful Will saves; the DC is 10 + the deity’s rank + the deity’s Charisma modifier. Deities are immune to the auras of deities of equal or lower rank. Any being who makes a successful saving throw against a deity’s aura power becomes immune to that deity’s aura power for one day. Divine aura is an emanation that extends around the deity in a radius whose size is a function of divine rank. The deity chooses the size of the radius and can change it as a free action. If the deity chooses a radius of 0 feet, its aura power effectively becomes non-functional. When two or more deities’ auras cover the same area, only the aura that belongs to the deity with the highest rank functions. If divine ranks are equal, the auras coexist. The deity can make its own worshipers, beings of its alignment, or both types of individuals immune to the effect as a free action. The immunity lasts one day or until the deity dismisses it. Once affected by an aura power, creatures remain affected as long as they remain within the aura’s radius. Cassia's divine Aura gives her the ability to daze those around her; affected beings just stare at the deity in fascination. They can defend themselves normally but can take no actions.
Energy Drain (Su): Cassia can also drain energy from a mortal or immortal of equal or lower divine rank she lures into some act of passion, or by simply planting a kiss on the victim. If the target is not willing to be kissed, Cassia must start a grapple, which provokes an attack of opportunity. Her kiss or embrace bestows one negative level. The kiss also has the effect of a suggestion spell, asking the victim to accept another kiss from Cassia.
Compulsion: Cassia has the power to enslave any of her followers at will, and has no moral qualms about sending them to their death if it benefits her or if she feels like it. She can also use the enslavement spell as a standard action when targeting a humanoid mortal or a deity of equal or lower divine rank, but she has to make eye contact with them and they must be within 10 feet of her.
Divine Stunning Glance (Su): As a standard action, Cassia can stun a creature within 60 feet with a look. The target creature must succeed on a DC 30 Fortitude save or be stunned for 2d6 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based. Cassia can also dominate an individual with a look, but they have to be within 30 feet of her.
Divine Blinding Beauty (Su): This ability affects all humanoids within 60 feet of Cassia. Those who look directly at her must succeed on a DC 25 Fortitude save or be blinded permanently as though by the blindness spell. Cassia can suppress or resume this ability as a free action. She frequently uses this ability when she wants her privacy or when she is mad.
Divine Unearthly Beauty (Su): This ability affects all humanoids within 60 feet of Cassia. Those within 60 feet must succeed a Will save of DC 20 or die. Cassia can suppress or resume this ability as a free action. She uses this ability in combat as soon as the fighting becomes hard, and may use it when she is angry. A lesser manifestation of her beauty is the ability to use the hypnotize spell on mortals or deities of equal or lower rank as a standard action.
Divine Grace: Cassia adds her Charisma modifier as a bonus on all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class. When Cassia dances, beings as far away as 60 feet will be attracted and within 30 feet, they will be enthralled. Cassia can also emit sympathetic energy wherever she is, whenever she wants to.
Divine Voice: Cassia's voice is unbelievably alluring, and carries great divine power, to the point that her ordinary suggestions have the effect of the spell. At present time, her voice does not have the power to enslave others, but she might gain this power if she continues to absorb more energy. If she wishes to charm someone with her voice, she has to phrase her actions in terms of her desire, or else speak in a seductive way. If Cassia should sing or speak sweetly to a group, that group experiences an enthrallment effect, just like the spell; only powerful individuals can resist it. If her song has a malicious tone, it has the effect of a song of discord. Even a whisper of hers' from a distance is enough to fascinate a character. The final normal power her voice has is the ability to do damage with her shouts. For more powerful abilities, specific emotions are needed.
Screams of Anger: If she is mad, Cassia can use a greater shout as a standard action, but she has to be actually angry first as it is fueled by the emotions behind it.
Screams of Pain: When Cassia feels intense pain, she lets out an intense scream which is identical to the scream of a banshee. Every round a blow lands on her that inflicts more than 5% of her total hit point total in damage or every round she is under 50% of her total hit points she will scream once a round. Cassia's lethal scream is fueled by actual pain and emotions that come with it; she cannot simply scream whenever she wants and expect to activate this effect.
Summoning Cry: Cassia's final power; if she is in serious danger (down to 25% of her maximum hit points) or is trapped somehow, a primal cry from deep down in her dark soul goes out, piercing the planes and traveling into distant realms of existence. All creatures with any level of planar awareness will detect the sound. From this cry, a creature may be summoned as if a spell of summon monster IX had been cast. Cassia can only do this once in a battle, and she has to fear for her very life.
Cassian Plane and Palace
A small, spherical plane which is 1,000 kilometers in diameter and height. Cassia has created a palace on a floating island surrounded by yellowish-white clouds. The sky of the plane is drenched in a rusty hue, and the palace's white marble appears to be yellowish. A trip to her plane is very dangerous if one cannot fly, and if flight is possible, getting through the clouds (which are actually sulfuric) is another hazard. Upon reaching her island, one will be attacked by various magical defenses if one is male (unless she brings him to her realm, or gives him permission which is very rare and is only for male deities or very powerful dragons), but females are allowed into her palace for an audience. If Cassia feels like listening, she will do so, but if she is annoyed, she might imprison, kill, torture, or do any number of bad things to the speaker. Visitors are understandably rare.
Cassia's Palace is huge, with thousands of rooms, half of which are accessible to visitors, the other half carry the death penalty without explanation if she catches one in there for any reason (she really likes her privacy). Many of her rooms are filled with gold and other offerings (magical items, silver, platinum, but no copper, as she doesn't accept too minor an offering) her followers have given her. At the center of her palace (prohibited to any visitors) is a magical portal room which contains interplanar gates between the palace and the various lands in which she has a large number of worshipers. The room is enchanted to be its own sub-plane so that it always has enough room for the portals, even if she were to have worshipers in a thousand countries.
Minions
Cassia rarely gets her own hands dirty; when something needs to be done and she doesn't feel like doing it herself, she sends her minions out. She never uses proxies, as she is too possessive of her power to invest any in others. Her minions, therefore, are all petitioners. Cassia only accepts females, and they are generally nymphs, elves, half-elves, succubi, or half-dragons. Humans are rare among her petitioners. Her minions are expected to do absolutely anything she wants them to do without any exception for any reason whatsoever; if any one of them displeases her for an instant for any reason, she will likely punish them severely or kill them.
Cassia also employs a group of temptresses.
Artifacts
Orb of Cassia: Cassia uses this nigh-indestructible orb to store excess emotional power that her body cannot absorb from her followers. As such, it is a very important artifact for her. Cassia is very protective of the orb, as it can give her a power boost when she needs it and can be used to replenish her powers for a time if her followers should be stopped from worshiping her for some reason. She keeps the orb in the most well-protected room in her palace and she never lets anyone else see it. Even seeing it for a split-second is enough for Cassia to smite you dead, no matter who you are or what your relationship to her is. Since Cassia has never told anyone about it, the orb's existence has been detected through the most advanced scrying techniques. If the existence of her orb is even mentioned to her, she will use an enslavement spell on the one who mentions it, ask how he knew about the orb, then kill him. The power contained in the orb is great, and can be used to replicate spells of all power levels.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Cassia is a very powerful entity, able to manipulate masses of people for her own ends. It must be noted, however, that there are weaknesses and vulnerabilities inherent in both her power and personality.
- Her powers have a hard time taking root in societies with strong values systems, especially if a set of religious laws or a respected constitution is in power. She can get into polytheistic lands most easily as those places are open to more gods than a monotheistic land. Also, if she is far away from either her palace or a land with a significant number of her worshipers, her divine powers will gradually weaken after about seven months (sooner if she uses a lot of power during that time.) After that, her divine powers will become less potent over the course of years until they fade totally. She can partially make up for this by manually absorbing power from the people she encounters, but this is of minor benefit unless she were to absorb might from something as powerful as a dragon or an archmage.
- Cassia has a weak will; concentration and pain tolerance are not her strong points, despite her repeated insistence that they are (to help cover the fact that she has this weakness.) She will scream when in pain, and if she feels sore, she will subordinate all other activities to her feeling better. Inflicting pain on Cassia, rather than injury, can drive her off.
- Cassia is rather lax in keeping up with her followers; an entire group of her followers could be wiped out and unless it was a large group, she wouldn't know. Only if she felt her incoming powers decrease would she notice. She is also quite lazy and self-indulgent, and spends much of her time debauching herself rather than effectively planning or working towards her goals.
- Her body is not indestructible and has limits. Cassia can get tired, hungry, thirsty, and she can feel pain; for a divinity, she cares much about her flesh, and her physical strength and durability aren't much, even by mortal standards (she can enhance these with magic, though.) Additionally, her capacity to store power in her physical frame is limited, even though it grows over time. Cassia must siphon off the excess power into her orb or else be forced to do one of two undesirable things; either she can let the power dissipate and not keep it at all or she can try to absorb more than she can safely contain.
- Cassia always does what she feels like; she's very impulsive. Even if she were in the middle of a battle, she would simply leave if she felt like it and come back later. She believes her impulses are so important that if she wanted to break a deal or not do something she said she would do and her only reason was that she "felt like it", she would think she had a good reason.
- Cassia has never tried to corrupt a land with very powerful archmages to oppose her; it remains to be seen whether or not she has the raw power to stand up to such a contest. Also, most of the lands she corrupted were weak or were elven and thus would be more easily given to following an elven goddess. Her appeal to honorable races (like dwarves), logical races (like humans), or patriarchal races (such as lizardfolk) is limited. Races that are emotional (like elves), magical (like genies), or close to nature (like nymphs) are more susceptible to her corruption.
- Cassia has a hard time making allies among other divinities. Her openly selfish ways and tremendous hedonism put her at odds with lawful and good divinities alike, and her lack of respect for divine social rules has the tendency to alienate her from many neutral divinities as well. Even when she was a mortal; she worshiped nothing but her own desires, and treated everyone around her as inferiors.
- Constructs are immune to many of Cassia's powers.
- Her greatest weakness is her inability to put necessity before her desires. If she wants something, she will endeavor to get it even if it is illogical and impractical for her to try and obtain it. Although she is able to conquer others with her power, she is not truly the master of herself, and she is a slave to her uncontrollable desires. Her intelligence is great, but the ends to which her intelligence are directed are dictated by her emotions and sensuality; if learning how to cast a complex spell which conjures up something which can make her feel good is what her desires tell her to do, she will do that, even though it is objectively a waste of her intelligence.
- Finally, if she is killed, she has no way to return to the living; her powers are in her flesh, not her corrupted soul.
Adaptation
Cassia in Eberron
Cassia is a very minor deity in Eberron, almost all of her followers on Khorvaire live in just one town. Most of her followers are on the elven continent of Aerenal, and even there, her followers are just 0.5% of all elven females, and almost no one else. Cassia is not yet recognized as a serious threat, due to her minor presence. She has followers in just one small area in Sarlona, and although some of the dragons of Argonnessen have heard of Cassia, none of them worship her. There is said to be a hidden base of hers' in the remote regions of Frostfell.
Cassia in Praemium Terra
Cassia is a deity of minor but growing importance in Praemium Terra. She has a great appeal among elven females, especially the poor ones. The archmages who rule the land are not fooled by her for a second; many of them would do the same things Cassia does if they were in her position. Currently, about 2% of Praemium Terra worships her as their only deity, and another 3% believe in her as a minor side divinity. More of the land would worship her (as much as 10% would make her a part of their pantheon and 5% would worship her as their sole deity), but Cassia worship is illegal in large parts of Praemium Terra, due to her corrupting influence.
Chrysalis
The very spell that enabled Cassia to become a goddess is still available to her after all these years. If, for some reason, she becomes desperate, needs to hide, or needs to gather more power without having to expend any, she can weave a cocoon using her magic.
Rather than a standard power, the ability to form such a chrysalis is as much a disadvantage than a help, as Cassia needs to invest a great deal of time and energy into making the pupa. Once created, she has to crawl inside totally unclothed and curl up in a fetal position; upon doing this, the hole which she entered into will seal up and the cocoon will begin to harden. Within a day, the chrysalis will have a hardness of 20, will shock anyone who tries to touch it, and will be immune to all but epic magical spells which attack it. From the cocoon, Cassia will rest for as long as it takes for her to build up enough energy (absorbed from a variety of sources) to shatter her pupa. This will likely take her a very long time and will likely entail her resting until almost no humanoid mortal who was alive when she entered is alive to remember her.
A general rule is that Cassia will always emerge more powerful when leaving the chrysalis than when she entered it, and she can be expected to gain one divine rank each time she uses a chrysalis up to the limit of the chrysalis spell's power (which is divine rank 19.) When she first leaves her cocoon, she will be wet, tired, and cramped, but within a day, she will be up to speed with her powers stronger than ever. If the chrysalis could be broken with Cassia still in it, she would be caught in a very low power state, unconscious, and will be vulnerable to the point that a strong man with an mundane axe could kill her, as her consciousness and divine powers require about 48 hours to begin to revive if she is prematurely pulled from the cocoon, and another 48 hours to return to full strength. A group of well-meaning adventurers who somehow manage to cut her out, thinking they were freeing a poor, trapped elven girl would likely be killed by Cassia and have their energy taken from them, as soon as she recovered, that is.
Scenarios in which Cassia would use a chrysalis include the destruction of most or all of her followers, sustaining an otherwise mortal injury in combat (should she escape, it also ought to be noted that the chrysalis hibernation process heals all of her injuries), or if she simply wants to gain more power using the longest method available. Currently, Cassia has not used any other chrysalis other than the one which turned her into a goddess. She has one woven and hidden in her palace, and it is ready to be used whenever she wants.
Progression
If Cassia is allowed to run rampant and regularly gain more energy than she can use, she will eventually progress in her divine rank. Upon reaching level 16, she will become a greater deity. With power that great, nature itself will be charmed by her very presence; trees will bend to shade her, waves will part around her, fire will refuse to burn her, and the sky will reflect her every emotion. In addition, the wild creatures of the world will protect her, as their simple minds are fed energy radiating out of Cassia which compels them to do so. The very force of life itself has been seduced by her, and life will do anything to keep Cassia alive and protected. Finally, while her powers are not yet great enough to freely tamper with the very laws of the universe, Cassia has gained enough power to use a free wish spell on the day her followers give her the most power (her birthday), and her integration into the fabric of reality has started; this enables her to tamper with time, minds and space. Hypothetically, Cassia could become an overdeity, but even at the level of greater deity, this is unlikely.
New Powers
Enslave Earth: At greater deity status, Cassia will constantly regenerate her wounds as long at least one of as her bare feet touch the ground. In addition, she can ask the stones for help, enabling her to summon an Earth Elemental whenever boulders or rocks are present as a standard action. As the earth has been seduced by her, earth based magic will not harm her. Note that falling rocks can still hurt her because they are under the influence of gravity, which she has not been able to seduce.
Enslave Water: At greater deity status, Cassia can control all water, allowing her to dehydrate mortal enemies as a standard action, killing them instantly (extreme magic resistance is needed to survive), as water will not aid those who oppose her. This attack is ineffective against most immortals because a standard immortal needs neither food nor water. In addition, Cassia can ask the water for help, enabling her to summon a Water Elemental whenever water is present. In cold climates, an elemental made of ice may appear. As the water has been seduced by her, water based magic will not harm her. Note that water thrown towards her by an outside force will still head towards her, because the water is under the influence of momentum from the throw.
Enslave Fire: At greater deity status, Cassia can manipulate fire, but she cannot cause it to appear at random without using a spell (not a standard action.) Once fire is present, it will protect Cassia and keep her warm. In addition, Cassia can ask the fire for help, enabling her to summon a Fire Elemental whenever fire is present as a standard action. As the fire has been seduced by her, fire based magic will not harm her. Note that the force of explosions can still hurt her, even if there is fire involved with the explosion.
Enslave Air: At greater deity status, Cassia can manipulate air, allowing her to asphyxiate mortal enemies as a standard action, killing them instantly (extreme magic resistance is needed to survive), as air will not aid those who oppose her. This attack is ineffective against most immortals because a standard immortal doesn't need to breathe. In addition, Cassia can ask the air for help, enabling her to summon an Air Elemental in any surface environment as a standard action. As the air has been seduced by her, air magic will not harm her. Note that she can burn up in the air if she was to travel at an extremely fast pace because Cassia has been unable to seduce friction.
Enslave Nature: At greater deity status, Cassia can manipulate nature, allowing her to control animals as if they were her worshipers. Animals will never attack her unless ordered to by a deity of even higher divine rank. Plants which can move or fight are subject to the same control as animals. If she desires an additional ally, she can now summon an ally from nature as a standard action. The creature summoned corresponds to the environment, such as a stag from the woods or a crocodile from a swamp.
Enslave Life: Even more powerful than controlling life when it has taken a form (that of nature) is the energy of vitality itself. At greater deity status, Cassia can resurrect anybody she touches (even if she just nudged them with her toe), as long as the body touches her skin. Cassia can also take life, and her touch can remove not just the life, but destroys the very vessel in which the mortal life is contained, as long as her skin comes into contact with the enemy. So great is her power at this level that if she were to perish, she would not stay dead. If slain normally, she will revive in 24 hours with all of her powers and hit points restored to full, with no penalties. Only by killing Cassia and then casting a wish or miracle spell can her hold over life be shaken and can she be kept truly dead.
Greater Presence: While her dream of becoming omnipresent still eludes her, Cassia has achieved a limited amount of this ability. Her divine aura covers a great area, and a small part of her is present in all of it. This has several effects other than what a standard divine aura entails. While it is still true that her power is still in her body, not her soul, the aura her body radiates becomes a small part of all those within her divine aura's range. This enables Cassia to have empathy with all those in her aura, even though she is, if anything, crueler and more selfish than ever before. Anyone who attacks Cassia will suffer from empathic feedback, as a blow against her is a blow against oneself, due to a part of her essence being in those who are near her. Note that the one way to be immune to the greater presence effects is to be a deity of even higher rank than Cassia. The most awesome manifestation of Cassia's presence is her link to nature. When she is upset, nature will be mad along with her, and earthquakes, torrential rain, lightning, hurricane-force winds, and pyroclastic flow may all emerge, depending on the state of nature around Cassia and how angry she is; animals in the vicinity may attack, acting as if rabid. By contrast, when Cassia is happy, nature springs into bloom where she steps, the clouds part, and animals peacefully gather around her.
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